HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says feds looking for ways to fund faith-based recovery programs

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday he supports finding new ways to provide federal funding for faith-based recovery programs.

The secretary visited Sheepgate, a Christian recovery and treatment program located in Colfax, to speak about the Great American Recovery Initiative, a federal program launched by President Donald Trump through an executive order issued in January. The federal program is an effort to provide more national resources and coordination for services that focus on addiction and substance abuse disorders across the country.

Part of the increased funding effort comes through the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support (STREETS) program — a $96 million funding initiative within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide up to eight communities with $3 million annually for four years to develop care systems for people who are homeless and have substance abuse disorders or serious mental illnesses.

Kennedy visited Detroit on Tuesday to discuss the Detroit Health Department’s receipt of STREETS program funding for long-term services to assist people struggling with homelessness, serious mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders.

At the Michigan event, Kennedy said the program will have a “new emphasis on faith-based recovery.”

Though Sheepgate — nor any Iowa facilities — received federal dollars through the STREETS program, Kennedy said the Colfax recovery center was a “exemplar” facility showcasing the type of care encouraged through the Great American Recovery Initiative — long-term programs that offer a year of “in-house recovery and reintegration into the community,” he said.

“Our plan of Great American Recovery is to reorient recovery towards value-based recovery in this country,” Kennedy said. “We follow the addict comprehensively over the lifetime, from detox to rehab to housing to jobs and stability. And that’s value-based care — but also to include more and more faith-based care, and that’s one of the reasons we came here to Sheepgate.”

But programs like Sheepgate are not currently receiving federal funding, Kennedy said, because of a policy enacted by the Biden administration “to stop all assistance to faith-based recovery programs and to discourage the state from supporting them.”

Regulations enacted in April 2024 by nine federal departments overseeing social service grants including drug rehabilitation services placed restrictions on partnerships with faith-based organizations to ensure funding did not go toward “explicitly religious” purposes, but some churches and faith-based services said the regulations made their programs ineligible for federal assistance. Kennedy said this policy has been changed during the Trump administration, but that problems remain.

“We’ve changed that policy at the top, but there are still impediments to us getting the money to these kind of programs,” Kennedy said. “This program is entirely funded by private donors, and that’s getting harder and harder for them to do. And we want to make sure that these kind of programs — they serve such a critical role — we want to make sure that they continue to function.”

He said HHS is “looking for ways to make sure that they can get federally funded” moving forward.

Kennedy is also set to appear — in his personal capacity — alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn and 2nd Congressional District candidate Joe Mitchell at an event hosted by the MAHA PAC Wednesday evening.